A year ago I wrote about the sad demise of my pergola on the back deck, brought down (literally) by a rampant wisteria. I grieved its loss. It was a verdant, shady space and it seemed stark and uninviting once the pergola and greenery were removed.
The original wisteria in all its glory
Oh dear. All fall down
But time heals all things, even pergolas, and Mr Judge has built a pergola that will outlast me. It will outlast the house. It may well outlast the apocalypse. It has a small shade sail that will have to suffice until the greenery re-establishes itself.
Having learnt at first hand the ferocity of a feral wisteria, we opted for an ornamental grape instead. Hopefully it will turn a rich shade of red during autumn. Its growth has been phenomenal. We only planted it in October and it has grown about 3 cm a day and is still growing. We’re now starting to train it along the wires.
The Resident Judge of Port Phillip 
Am planning my own grape-covered pergola – yours is inspirational!
My sister has an ornamental grape covered pergola, but over it is corrugated fibre glass and when it is warm condensation drips constantly, not great when you are eating a meal under it.
No fibreglass here! Just a shade cloth that will be taken off as soon as the vine provides enough shade. A friend did warn me, though, that there’s one weekend when the grapes (emasculated little ornamental things that they are) emit a powder that covers anything and anyone underneath them. That might be a weekend to avoid.
That was, I must say, my parents’ experience too. We get fine powder over all or back verandah from pine tree pollen in spring. From across the road, over the roof and onto the covered back verandah. Come Christmas and we have to do some serious cleaning. Sweeping isn’t enough.
These handy men are handy to have aren’t they! Looks great RJ.
We also have a pergola with a ‘feral wisteria’. The wisteria brought down the heavy timbers so has now been cut back but we know from last year’s experience that it will grow back rampantly. How did you get rid of your wisteria? The only solution that has been suggested to me is using glyphosate which I am reluctant to use – it’s getting headlines for all the wrong reasons. When I was a child we had a pergola with ornamental grapes and it looked lovely.
I suspect that Steve used glyphosate but there are still little tendrils that come up through the decking. We planted the new ornamental grapes some distance from the wisteria stumps so hopefully they won’t compete with each other